Under the Frost, A Story of Warmth and Growth in the Shed Business

Venture with us into the heart of a Pennsylvania winter, where the cold air bites, but the warmth of Willy Bricker's story envelopes us like a cozy blanket. Willy, the co-owner of North Mountain Structures, recounts his remarkable transformation from a teenage shop worker to a key figure in the family business. His narrative, rich with humor and the essence of rural life, paints a vivid picture of the challenges and rewards of assuming leadership roles and finding purpose in one's work. Keele Heckman, Willy's partner, may be on a mission trip, but his spirit is felt throughout our conversation as we explore the intricacies of building a company from the ground up.

Strap on your boots and join us in a trek through the competitive yet comradely world of shed construction, where we uncover the surprising scope and depth of the industry. From the friendly rivalry found at events like the Pennsylvania shed haulers bash to the strategic balance of collaboration and competition, every nuance is a piece of the puzzle. We also tackle the art of sales and the hustle of daily business management, offering insights into customer service, solving problems through our products, and the tricks of maintaining personal time amidst the whirlwind of entrepreneurship.

Finally, we reflect on the transformative power of hard work and the fulfillment that comes from helping others. We share stories of personal growth and the crucial influences of faith, teamwork, and the wisdom imbued in books like "The Go-Giver." As we consider the role of online marketing strategies in our future endeavors, we acknowledge the ever-present need to evolve and adapt. So sit down, settle in, and let's unwrap the complex, triumphant world of life, leadership, and the shed industry together.

Also, find out how the podcast can be heard throughout the plain communities by dialing the number 330-997-3055. If the number is busy, just dial again! 

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

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Transcript

Shed Geek: 0:37

Okay, Welcome back to another episode of the Shed geek podcast in this bitter, nasty, rainy, snowy cold.

Willy Bricker: 0:48

Yes, this is the time of year. I'm not a fan of Pennsylvania.

Shed Geek: 0:51

Well, who would have known we would be going to Pennsylvania in January? It just can't beat that. We tried to save Pennsylvania for the summertime, where there's less mosquitoes and cooler air, and we're chasing the better weather. Today we lost the battle, but that's okay because we're with good company. A lot of great interviews lined out this week, including today's guest Willy. Do you just want to introduce yourself, the name of your company, a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Willy Bricker: 1:22

Yeah, absolutely so. Most people know me as Willy Bricker. My name is actually a Wieland, but everybody calls me Willy. That started back in school, but I am owner of North Mountain Structures here in South Central Pennsylvania, along with my partner, Keele Heckman, which he's not here today he's on a six-week mission trip with his family right now. But I started working here for the company in 2010, just a 17-year-old guy working, just the guy in the shop. So worked in the shop for quite a few years and then worked more up to like a shop manager and then in 2020 is when I moved into the office. And then in 2022, my partner and I purchased the business for my uncle. He started it back in 2004, I believe. So been doing sheds here for a long time, so it's a ton of fun. I love it. So whenever I first started in the shop as just a laborer, it was a job, but now I love it the whole.

Shed Geek: 2:20

Now you don't work. Is that what you're telling me? Exactly, exactly. I bet that's what the guys in the shop say.

Willy Bricker: 2:25

That's what they say Exactly. But I do too. I love my job, I love coming to work every day.

Shed Geek: 2:30

Yeah, that's good.

Willy Bricker: 2:31

And, yeah, I'm a dad, husband, I mean. The list of who I am could go forever. It's a huge blessing and a lot of responsibility I gave to me.

Shed Geek: 2:41

A lot of hats A lot of times.

Shed Geek: 2:43

You wear a lot of hats. I talked about a lot of hats recently. Whatever you're growing up and kind of trying to find, I don't know. I still think that for men, we spend a lot of time trying to find purpose Sort of, in what we do and there's a large part of our identity that's kind of made up in that purpose and so, like that's where our job becomes very important to us, like you can go into work and just do a job, or you can have a career, you can have something that you're ambitious about, something that you look forward to doing, or you can just bring in a paycheck, right. And I think that a lot of guys like myself tend to find a lot of identity of ourselves in also what we do and it becomes very important for us. So, like, what's the coming in at 17,? Your uncle owns the shed business. You grew up. You're here in Chambersburg, yes, and I'm assuming that you grew up in this area.

Willy Bricker: 3:40

Born and raised in Chambersburg Okay, that's all I know, other than I did live for two years in Kentucky whenever I was 16, 15 and 16, lived with my uncle and aunt there for a while, helping him with his door and window business, okay, and was good friends with everybody down there in Berksville, Kentucky. So Chad Gingerich he was on the show a while ago.

Shed Geek: 3:59

Yeah, shout out to Chad. He's a good guy, he's a really good guy, yeah.

Willy Bricker: 4:03

So so, other than living in Kentucky for a little bit, I was Chambersburg is really all I know, but then my wife's from Iowa, so I did get out of state a little bit there.

Shed Geek: 4:12

The flat land.

Willy Bricker: 4:13

The flat land exactly.

Shed Geek: 4:14

Yeah.

Willy Bricker: 4:15

You can see a dog run away for two days and stand on a five gallon bucket. See it for another day.

Shed Geek: 4:18

Yeah, what's the deal in Iowa with the 159th street way out in the middle of the country, or 163rd street? I don't understand the way, like we were driving through there and I love it. Yeah, it's actually kind of like peaceful, although there's not a whole lot to be seen, there's not a lot of corn and corn and beans.

Willy Bricker: 4:41

It's about all beans, yeah.

Shed Geek: 4:42

Just like central Illinois pretty much. But yeah, I don't know. I just remember seeing like we were out in the country and we were like 132nd street. I was like what, I'm not sure what's going on, a little of nowhere, yeah.

Willy Bricker: 4:55

Everything's laid out in square block grids where my wife's family's from.

Shed Geek: 4:58

Yeah.

Willy Bricker: 4:58

Des Moines area.

Shed Geek: 4:59

Okay.

Willy Bricker: 5:00

Little west of Des Moines, a little town called Dallas Center.

Shed Geek: 5:03

Okay.

Willy Bricker: 5:03

But everything's northwest, east and south out there, like put, if you're talking to my father and all goes, he goes. You know, get something out the south end of the shed. Well, I'm from Pennsylvania. I have no clue which side of the south end of the shed is. I see, yeah.

Shed Geek: 5:19

Well, we liked it. It was nice out there Get to visit some of our good friends Nick Yoast and the guys up there at iFab and or some other guys that come from there, Gary Bontrager and just people that you just names, that you accumulate the industry and been to Des Moines before. It's a that's actually a nice little downtown area I like that, yeah, it is yeah. It's always a fun time in Pennsylvania. I prefer in the summer.

Willy Bricker: 5:46

I do too. I do too, but it's where I live, so thankfully I live right here on the property as well where the shop's at, so I walk to work. I like to tell people like I'd love to buy a Tesla someday, but I can't even afford a little beater because I walk to work. Or. I can't justify a little beater even because I just walked to work. I don't need a car.

Shed Geek: 6:03

Yeah, yeah, oh, you're going to have to get one of those. Well, you start with like a golf cart. Say there's an electric car for you there you go, you got to start somewhere, yeah. And then you can just ride around. And now your employees are really going to think you're taking it easy, right?

Willy Bricker: 6:17

They would, yeah, and the other thing is I have to compete with it with my nephew. So we've, my wife and I have five kids, and our sixth one is due next week.

Shed Geek: 6:25

So congratulations, thank you. Yeah, it's exciting, but that's awesome.

Willy Bricker: 6:28

This will be our first biological child, so our oldest two, or my niece and nephew. They came to live with us about four years ago. Their family situation didn't work out, and so they came to live with us, so he's 11. And so he'd be the who I'd be competing with with the golf cart.

Shed Geek: 6:42

Okay, okay.

Willy Bricker: 6:43

But 11, my nephew's eight. And then we adopted our little girl, and through foster care a year ago now, actually, yeah, a little over a year ago, in December she's four. And then we have two other little girls that are still in the foster system. That's three and one, okay.

Willy Bricker: 6:59

So, it's, it's a full time job. Being a dad, it's, it's great. So, just like what you're saying, like all the many hats, like, being a business owner is great and fun. I love it, but you got to remember why. Why you're doing this it's it's, it's for my, for my family. Like um, I heard someone say that the only people in 20 years that remember you worked late are going to be your children.

Willy Bricker: 7:20

So, I got to remember that, like the reason I'm here is is for my family, but not just that. It's also for the guys working here, like being a business owner and being a leader. It's like you had said, part of a man's identity is is finding purpose for life. But it's part of mine is also making sure I'm giving purpose to the guys working in the shop as well, like it's. It's a whole lot more than just being a boss or an owner or a salesman a leader, a leader Exactly.

Willy Bricker: 7:49

It's providing that, that identification for the guys working here, making sure they're not just clocking in and can't wait to clock out, like there's a difference in a boss and a leader.

Shed Geek: 7:59

you know, uh, I think I've worked for, I've had several bosses as, and I've worked for several leaders that were my boss and, um, I grew the most under leadership, right, like, uh, uh, definitely, well, I mean, you can only imagine not a fan of micro management. You know what I mean. That's a struggle for me, uh, because I seek independence, I love independence, I prefer that. So, like being an employee, um, you have your own ideas, right, and you have to like, uh, you have to like, fall under the leadership of that in which you're serving at the time, right, I'm not sure if I'm saying that in a way that comes across right.

Shed Geek: 8:40

But, uh, you have to be sort of subservient in some ways to to serve and be like, hey, I can be a good employee in this situation. But then there comes a time where, like, the bands start to bust or you start to go wait a minute, I think there's other ways to do this, or I think there's better ways, or I think there's ways I can improve, and you attempt to. Uh, so you know, and that's, I mean, is that not kind of the story of the shed industry? Why do the best people end up in the shed industry? Like you're, literally like, um, you know, like you're exactly the guy I'm, like hey, man, I'd love to hang out with those guys on Friday night. Like you know what you're getting, you don't, you don't wonder? Like I mean, this guy's got, you know, five kids, took in his, you know, his nephew you might not want to, you might not want to hang out with me Friday night.

Shed Geek: 9:22

No, are you working?

Willy Bricker: 9:23

No, no, a lot of noise, a lot of kids. It's okay.

Shed Geek: 9:26

It's great chaos, Ah it's beautiful, it's like our pastor said. He said, uh, you know talking about kids in church. And he said, man, what a beautiful sound Like so many pastors get upset and they're like, oh, we're said, you know, quiet their kids down and sit down. And he said, it's just a beautiful sound to me to have to hear kids hollering in the church. Or you know what I mean Active being kids, like kids are.

Willy Bricker: 9:48

Hey, that's, that's the future of anything. I mean your church, the future business, I mean it all starts out with kids.

Shed Geek: 9:54

Yeah, we're reaping what we sow, or not necessarily in a bad way. We had two children, we had a girl and a boy and we stopped and we kind of like I know I was scared financially that you know, growing up, what I would consider poor and I think by most any other standard, you know, it would be considered poor as well. Maybe not as bad as my dad did, you know, but then my, my son's not going to have it as bad as I did, right, hopefully his kids don't have his bad to see. So you're constantly looking for, you know, to better those behind you. But I kind of feel like we've just landed upon a gold mine with, you know, having a grand baby do here in March and Troy home from school and he's traveling with us.

Willy Bricker: 10:36

Yeah, that's that's great More time with family, like yeah yeah, that's like.

Shed Geek: 10:40

uh, it's like paying for nine innings of baseball and you get two extra innings because they're tied or something you know. Uh, it's nice to spend the time with him now and go down the road and just chat and and uh, certainly look forward to being his friend and not just his parent at all times.

Shed Geek: 12:02

So tell me about the shed industry. Man, like what is it that? What is it that has surprised you from 17-year-old Willy coming in to help his uncle?

Shed Geek: 12:18

to to, to where you are now running the company.

Willy Bricker: 12:21

Yeah, well, one thing that I remember and it still happens is whenever I got into the shed industry, everyone's like, well, won't everybody have a shed soon?

Shed Geek: 12:30

I mean, you can't just keep building these things.

Willy Bricker: 12:33

I mean, my uncle was building sheds for quite a few years before I even started and I remember I got into the business and was working here and my grandparents would go like, doesn't everybody have a shed? I mean, what's going on with this? But I was like, hey, they keep buying them. Sales have been increasing ever since 2010. So it's it's. It's been phenomenal, like really, it's just meeting new people. So whenever I got into the hire, just working in the shop, that's all it was. It was just a job. I was here because I needed a job. I wasn't passionate about the shed industry.

Willy Bricker: 13:04

I didn't even know there was a shed industry. But like I remember working in the shop like okay, why am I here? Like it's just the next shed, the next shed. But then whenever I moved into the office it's like this is why I'm here, like I'm actually solving a problem for this customer, like they have a problem and I can help them. It's not just clock in, clock out, clock in, nail the two before together, clock out, like I'm doing so much more than selling two before is with the shingle on top. I'm actually creating space. I'm solving a problem. Like so I guess you say what? What surprises me the most? It's really how much I love the industry, how big the industry is going from not even knowing it was an industry to like man, there's a lot of people in this industry, a lot, yeah. And then the Pennsylvania shed haulers bash. I went there and I believe that was your first podcast you're doing there.

Shed Geek: 13:59

We had a couple of. We had a couple recorded and then we had a few recorded and then we did like four or five of them there.

Willy Bricker: 14:08

Okay, yeah, so I. That was the first time I saw you. I saw you guys sitting around with mics and headphones. I was like what's?

Shed Geek: 14:13

going on.

Willy Bricker: 14:14

Exactly yeah. And so I little research and I found your podcast. I was like this is great, like you're, you're the connector connecting all these pieces, and so it's like I'm not alone and so that's. That was a big thing as well. Like, okay, I'm alone, I'm managing this business now, and who else is out there other than our competition? Like what else is out there? And then you came along the podcast, like wow, this place is huge. And then that opened up a whole bunch of other opportunities into other facets of the business, as far as suppliers and Joey lift and all those other stuff. It just exploded, my world.

Willy Bricker: 14:51

So that's probably the coolest thing that I would say as far as the whole shed industry is, knowing how big it is.

Shed Geek: 14:58

I would. I would agree. We were driving through Chambersburg and I was like Troy, look up the population here in Chambersburg, because we was kind of talking about it over lunch. So the way here 22,000, by the way.

Willy Bricker: 15:12

Okay, good to know. I've been here my whole life and didn't even know it.

Shed Geek: 15:16

I always try to always compare it to like where we are closest, so like I think, the county, the county over the cracking county, which is where Paduca Kentucky's located, it's like 120,000, but Paduca is only like 26.

Willy Bricker: 15:29

So so it's about the same size so.

Shed Geek: 15:31

I like to try to compare it, sort of like where we are, and I think to myself like how many shed lots are there? Well, let's see, in Paduca there's only like 10 or 13 or something like that I don't know what it is, but there's tons of guys selling sheds there and I can really remember when it was just like maybe two, our little town of Metropolis had three. Now they have none. It's just like 6,500 people, so like.

Willy Bricker: 15:53

I guess everybody does have a shed now. Yeah, I think I will.

Shed Geek: 15:56

And I wanted I wrote down a few things. A lot of times that's what I'll do when I'm interviewing is I'll try to write down a few topics that really like stand out and I'm like man, there's some meat there that we need to address Saturation. Yeah.

Shed Geek: 16:07

You know, is it going to happen? Everybody talks about the bubble popping, but you were kind of talking about being a young guy starting working with your uncle, moving into the opportunity to own your own company and now seeing the maturity and growth in that company, and like we were even kind of talking about that over lunch, like watching and seeing where you want to go. Yeah, you know how you want to do that, like gaining opinions from people to be, able to do that.

Shed Geek: 16:34

I don't, I don't know, I don't know when we had a point of saturation. I see sheds everywhere all the time now and it is, to your point, a huge. It feels like a huge industry. It's like the biggest small industry ever because everybody's connected. Then, at the same time, like I don't know, I'm seeing Facebook posts from Brandon Suarez and Salt Lake, and then turn around and see and oh, I don't know, something happening in Florida, alabama, seeing something that you're doing here in Pennsylvania, and it's like man, I know all those people. But at the same time, like there's a, there's a lot of sheds out there.

Willy Bricker: 17:11

There is a phenomenal amount, yeah, and so, yeah, whenever you think about that, you've got 13 shed lots in one town, whereas here it feels like, yeah, there's three, four, five of them around here. It's like, man, we're, we're getting too tight, but compared to that, no, not really. So there's, there's. So far there's been room for all. I'm great friends with our competition, talk to them fairly regularly, so that's awesome.

Shed Geek: 17:34

Well, that's a good thing. And, like me and Sam, by the way, we're kind of talking recently from the Holler perspective of like what, what they do and how they try and connect and and we were kind of talking about the excitement of like watching sort of some of the sales people come together in a way that they can pay homage and respect to the fact that we are competitors, which is not a bad thing. I think it's got a little bit of a bad rep because we've been so many people's been talking about, you know, collaboration, me included like it's a great thing. It is because it's sort of like, stems from fellow love to your, of your brother.

Shed Geek: 18:06

Right, like you're, you're sort of like you're on this task to create this really nice, awesome business. That's very helpful to people with a product that also allows you to, you know, feed your family and serve other families through employment. But then there's there's also this like other purpose, a grander purpose in life to, like you know, treat others as though you were to be treated and to live under biblical rule. Right, like you know, what, what, what we know to be true. Sure.

Shed Geek: 18:37

And like try and live that out in your, in your walk, in your in your, yeah, in your daily walk.

Willy Bricker: 18:45

So, just like you're saying, collaborate here. But like, why are we in business? We're here to solve problems, we're here to serve people and if they can be served by someone else, so be it. But the whole thing of collaboration is it like trying to understand, like, what that is or what that means in the shed industry? It might be a little easier explained in the hauler side versus the sales side, but I mean, I had a great story here happen in the last year of collaborating with with our competitor was we had a new shedlock come in town and the first week or two he was there.

Willy Bricker: 19:18

I stopped in one Saturday just to talk to him and just like can beat him's, like, hey, this is who. I am Just curious who you are. Hey, we're gonna be friends, we're not enemies here, just curious where he's coming from, who he is, just like that way I'm not beating around the bush and hearing it through the grapevine. So I talked to him, introduced myself, and the funny thing was is while I was there, our other competitor drove past and he messaged me and goes hey, what are you talking to the enemy for?

Shed Geek: 19:42

What are you doing man Obviously as a joke it was great, but obviously as a joke.

Willy Bricker: 19:52

Of course we were great friends, and more than just just in the shed industry. But then after a while a couple weeks go past I stopped in there and talked to the guy a couple more times. We became friends other than just in the shed industry, and he gave me a call one day. He goes hey, I got a guy looking for a shed, but my price is higher than anybody else's price around here and I'd rather him buy from you than anybody else. I was like, well, hey, send him over, see if I can help. And I ended up selling a shed to that guy who had no clue that we were even here in town. He was just looking for a shed, stopped in at our competitors lot. The competitor couldn't help him out, so he sent him to us and we made a sale. So it was like it's like brilliant, like that's what, that's what stopped me in and talking to him.

Willy Bricker: 20:34

Building that relation was about like he's helping us out, I'm there to help him, like we, we can help each other out. And then after a couple months that guy he's no longer the salesman there at that sales lot. But he gave me a call last week and said hey, I'm running a little like handyman contractor business and I got contacted from a company that needs 20 or 30 little cabins to finish out. I was wondering if you could help me out with it. Wow, I was like man, it just comes full circle because I wasn't there trying to get business or steal his business. I was there just as a friend, like hey, who are you? What's it about? This is who I am. And it turns around like hey, we can help each other out here.

Shed Geek: 21:14

So that soft approach change things? Like I said, I don't. I, you know the industry one that's the comment that came to mind when you were talking the industry one in that situation, because you know it can be tough to extend the olive branch to somebody who is across the aisle and you're, you're, you're competing with. But we mentioned competition and we talked so often about collaboration and how good it is, and I agree. But there's value in competition in that it makes us better, it right, it keeps us accountable but doesn't let us lacks. So I mean there's there's a lot of times whenever you see a competitor doing something and you think to yourself I know I have several times man, that was really good, that's really, that's really smart, and maybe that sets the standard for all of us moving forward, because they've done something that really mattered.

Willy Bricker: 22:01

And if we're really doing it for the customer, we'll all come up with better ways to serve.

Shed Geek: 22:05

Yeah, so yeah, you're always going to come back with a better uptime, and that's really the customers. Being educated holds tremendous value for them, right? Because then they're able to come to you and they're able to ask you like, and then you're able to perform your duty as a shed sales professional. To be like. Well, let's get to the bottom with this customer's wanting. Do they want?

Shed Geek: 22:27

Are they really wanting a high quality shed that matches everything in their in their house because there's a HOA stipulation or something along those lines? Or, you know, is this more traditional storage? I need something quick, fast, easy, something to protect my mower, some more of a price point shopper, but not to suggest that quality is completely unimportant, but maybe not. I don't need all the bells and whistles, so to speak. So, like gives you the opportunity, and a lot of people manufacturers go into those different niches, don't they? They're like hey, we kind of identify ourselves as, like you know, maybe not the cheapest, but also the best quality. And someone over here says well, we move, bulk, we move a lot of product.

Shed Geek: 23:10

That's really important to us. We talked about saturation, but would you say and I think I know the answer to this but you said one of the things that you found for yourself, a sort of a passion in like the sales world, like you talked to me about, like the business side, exciting you.

Shed Geek: 23:30

Yeah, it's something cool about going out there and, like you know, building the jigs and like understanding the process of a professional shed builder day in and day out. But what is it about? Like the sales process and the the business side, that kind of grabbed you.

Shed Geek: 23:49

Sure.

Willy Bricker: 24:58

what's best. And then that's even more fun because I can walk them through what I think is best. And then they look at me as like a professional in the field, like they would trust me and trust what I'm looking for. But it's not only me just pushing product on them, it's me figuring out the problem and then offering this solution for that problem so that they can continue doing whatever they're needing. So it's not you need this, this and this. It's like, hey, you could use this, so that A, b and C I mean it's great. I mean you walk into your garage and you smell gas because you've got gas cans and lawnmowers in there. Well, you need more ventilation. We offer the Soffit Vent and the Ridge Vent and the Gable Vent. It gets air moving. So it's not like, yeah, we need vents. It's like no, we don't want to smell gas.

Shed Geek: 25:44

Have you seen my buddies down there Mobino Solar Solution.

Willy Bricker: 25:50

I don't know, if you saw his episode.

Shed Geek: 25:51

Yup, I did the Zula. I don't know. I was like man like me and him has been talking recently and I'm like I just really feel like this is a great product when you think of ventilation. So free commercial, yeah, exactly.

Willy Bricker: 26:06

But the thing is whenever you're selling that, you're not selling a fan. Nobody wants to buy a fan, but they don't want the musty shed. They don't want their totes full of Christmas decorations smelling like gas they don't. You're buying the experience. You're selling the solution to a problem. You're not selling a fan, and that's the part that I love Like.

Willy Bricker: 26:26

I'm not selling tuba force. Nobody wants to buy tuba force. They've got enough problems in their house with tuba force. Like they want a solution to a problem, they want to get their $80,000 SUV in the garage Because they're going to lose the value if it's out in a hail storm. They can't fit in the garage because it's full of stuff that should go in a shed. So I'm not selling them a shed. I'm solving a problem by getting their $80,000 SUV in the garage.

Shed Geek: 26:54

So we kind of talked about even the P&L side, like focusing on things like that and like truly becoming a bit of a business expert, at least in your small area, right and how. That's exciting. It is and how it can become exciting as you begin to develop a taste for it.

Willy Bricker: 27:15

Yeah, knowing your numbers, knowing what you're buying lumber for, what it costs to build the shed, what it costs to sell the shed and then what you can sell the shed for, knowing that it's a ton of fun. I love digging into it. So, like we said before, there's a lot of hats to wear with owning a business and being in leadership, to where I'm the only salesman here. So that's what I do from 8 to 5. So the business side of it's what I do from early in the morning till 8. So I clock out at 5. I'm usually home by 5.30. So it's 5.30.

Willy Bricker: 27:47

I don't work late. Occasionally I do if I have to, but most times I'm here like if it's before a quarterly meetings or if it's annual meetings. I'm here at 3 o'clock every morning for all week long and getting that business side done and then still doing the sales side at 8. So it's juggling and learning how to manage that time. Like I've got to start buying sticky notes in cases by the case. So I have sticky notes everywhere and then at the end of every day look at all the sticky notes and figure out which ones I got to get done before the end of the day, if my desk is clean of sticky notes. I got everything done.

Shed Geek: 28:19

The original CRM system. That's right. Yeah, I still use them too. Even though I use programs and automation and things like that, every now and then just kind of stand at the top of your mind there with a sticky note, like I got to call this guy back. This is a must do today or those situations, and always try to take the approach that I'm going to call you back by the end of the day, no matter what. Always. Initially, I even set that as my voicemail for the longest time. If you leave me a voicemail, you will receive a call by the end of the day, and I try to put that pressure on myself to make sure I'm performing.

Shed Geek: 28:54

I spend a lot of time on the phone because, believe it or not, I'm a talker, so it just lends itself to that. Let's get some meat on the bone here for the audience who listen and I'm going to address your conversation about connecting and being a connector. We're going to come back to that. But to get some meat on the bone, like what are some things that's helped you in sales? What are some things that have disappointed you? Maybe we don't have to talk too specific, but what are some things that you were like wow, that looked different than what I thought.

Willy Bricker: 29:26

Sure, so my sales, like I said, I moved in the office in 2020. And that's right. When COVID hit so January of 2020, january, february, march was kind of before COVID hit, and it was whenever it was just starting and everyone was like what's going to happen? And we've had several customers call in and cancel their order because they're going to wait and see what happens. They might get laid off, and it looked pretty scary there for a little bit.

Willy Bricker: 29:49

But then, after the ball started rolling, it's like the orders just came flooding in and so, where I was an order taker, I wasn't a salesman, I wasn't. I didn't really have to craft or learn what I was doing, I just did it, I just took the order. So I knew how to do that. And as 2020 happened 2021 was really good. 2022, last year I started realizing like, hey, what can I do to get better at this? It's easy to spend money on a tool or something for the shop, where you spend an X amount of money and you have something to see that, ok, you spent $10,000. Now you have a Joey, you've got something to hold, ok you spend.

Shed Geek: 30:30

X amount of money. Now you have a truck. Now you have a trailer.

Willy Bricker: 30:33

Now you have a Mimual, you have something. Whereas I started looking into sales training Like how can I be better at sales, how can I be better at communicating, how can I be better at whatever I'm doing? And you've got to spend some money. But if I spend money I don't have anything to show for it unless I learn it. So if I don't learn it, it's putting a lot of pressure on me. So that whole thing. I did spend a little bit of money in some training, just communication and learning how to mainly how to help people and help solve problems, not necessarily product knowledge. I have that. I've been building these sheds since I was 17. So, yeah, I guess we're at what wins.

Shed Geek: 31:11

Maybe I need to write that down. Answer it if you want to, or we'll come back to it. What wins?

Willy Bricker: 31:16

What wins?

Shed Geek: 31:17

Product knowledge or sales approach and coaching the coaching you receive versus your product knowledge Sure.

Willy Bricker: 31:30

I think they go hand in hand. So we have several dealers that I'm also helping them out as well. So if they'd have a question they'd call me and we had a new dealer start and he didn't have any product knowledge and that's when I realized it is important. It's very important because if someone comes to you as the expert and you don't know, that's pretty scary.

Willy Bricker: 31:50

I wouldn't want to buy from somebody who didn't know anything about what they knew so it is very important, but I think knowing how to communicate to the customer in a way that you're for them, you're not out to get another sale, you're out to help them and whatever that means. So I think they go hand in hand. I mean you can't have one without the other. I don't think.

Shed Geek: 32:10

I agree. I think it's easy to undermine product knowledge as well too. Whenever it's a new employee, whenever it's a new dealer, or if you're someone who's been working in Sheds for a long time, a band board makes perfect sense to you what it is. But imagine being in the position of a salesperson not knowing what the band board is and how important is it. Oh, I don't know, maybe you're not going to need to have that knowledge and 50 customers, but maybe one person's going to ask you I notice you guys don't paint the band board. Will you do that or just that included? And then you have to go well, what's the band board Right?

Willy Bricker: 34:05

And that's where product knowledge is paramount. Like you need to know what you're selling but at the same time, like I said before, what are you selling? Are you selling to before You're selling experience? So you've got to know how to figure out what they want to buy and then sell that. And if it looks like a shed, that's great. Just like you mentioned on the podcast before about Apple computers, you just so happen to sell Apple computers and so that's the same way with me. I want to solve people's problems. So, just as happened, I'm in the shed business, Like if your problem is XYZ, if I can solve that with the shed, I will. If you need something else, I'm for sure going to give your referral to someone else. I've got a whole drawer full of business cards and numbers of other things, like roofers and guys that build decks and gutters and everything else that I can't supply but my customer needs.

Shed Geek: 34:56

And I pulled that from Simon Sinek to give credit where it's due. He talked about that and he talks about how Apple just happened to. They were going to be the best at what they do. What they do wasn't as important. They could have been building refrigerators, they just happened to be in computers. They could have been building motorcycles. That just happened to be Harley Davidson. They just happened to find a way to market the best product and find out. All those right Like Apple figured it out on computers, harley Davidson figured out, you know, kleenex figured it out on tissues Weed eater. Well, arguably they didn't figure it out, because I'm an echo fan whenever it comes to weed eaters. But tremors.

Shed Geek: 35:36

But weed eater, you know branding. There's a whole conversation about branding that needs to happen there. Kleenex, Cokes, weed eaters, I mean, I always think that's important.

Willy Bricker: 35:44

And that whole side of the business, like branding and knowing how to market and advertise and what all that is like. That's something like I want to learn more of, like I'm super hungry to learn. Okay, so what is good branding? What is good marketing? How can I do it? In some ways? I don't have the time of day to figure it all out, but I want to. I mean, right now I'm wearing a lot of hats.

Willy Bricker: 36:07

So, that's one of my early morning hats. The customer hats usually come during the day, so but what is good? Okay, so we have a marketing company, we have a website, we have all that and I know what our analytics are, but what is good?

Shed Geek: 36:20

Yeah.

Willy Bricker: 36:21

Who do you compare it with? How do you compare it with? And so if you're gonna be the best at whatever you'd be, and you just so happen to be in the shed industry and you wanna be the best in the shed industry, I don't wanna look at our competitors and say, what are they doing? I'm gonna do that. I mean, you'll never get.

Shed Geek: 36:34

Breach, brother preach, you'll never get ahead.

Willy Bricker: 36:36

That way. You gotta look okay, what am I doing and how can I better this? And to where myself is my own competition? Like we sit down with our financial guy every year and have projections Like I list out reasonable, realistic projections, but then my goal is always to beat it. Like I want to do better than what my projections are. Same thing with marketing Like I wanna be the best there is. And so what is that? Who can I compare it to? What do I compare it to?

Shed Geek: 37:04

Well and you're hungry. It shows up in your conversation, in your questions, like over lunch, you know. I mean, and I'm I'm one to like just kind of freely talk about what I do know and then quick to be like I don't know at all.

Willy Bricker: 37:19

You know what I mean.

Shed Geek: 37:21

Like I'm quick to be like, oh hey, for me it's about being the connector. What you said earlier and I appreciate your kind words on that. I wanted to kind of come back to that and just say you know, connectivity is really it's networking, and I would say it's not just communication but it's comprehension. I don't know if you've ever heard the quote that I used to think that communication was the key, because we always hear communication is the key but really comprehension is the key Because, like you know, we can communicate something but it doesn't mean it's like it's comprehensive, it doesn't mean it's understood and that communication actually happened. Just because you spoke doesn't mean communication happened. The longest distance in history is from my heart to my mouth, to your ears, to your heart. I'll say that again the longest distance in history is from my heart to my mouth, to your ears, to your heart and vice versa.

Willy Bricker: 38:15

Because there's so many things that get in the way. Yeah, I mean, sometimes I'm not even sure how to say what I want, what I'm feeling.

Shed Geek: 38:20

Yeah.

Willy Bricker: 38:20

Much less say it in a way that you make sense to you.

Shed Geek: 38:23

Exactly how do I say it in a way that is effective communication and it's comprehended? So I find that, you know, in areas I've jumped into, not just the podcasting but even in the marketing and RTO side is like, how do I effectively educate? So I've kind of found this sort of like passion for education, which is hilarious, Willy, given my like primary school days, you'd be like there's no way this guy cares anything about education, which really I didn't, you know, and and kind of grew up in a, a broken home. You know what I mean, was kind of born into that. And then it, it became our reality and then, you know, school and education just wasn't a big thing. Hard work was that's because we were, you know, breaking Democrats and you know blue dogs and everybody was like you're gonna have to work hard and if you don't work, everybody, you're going to win.

Shed Geek: 39:11

There's another saying and I love, I love quotes. I try, I try to keep a whole storage room full of them in my head because of that. This is you know, hard work meets talent when talent doesn't work, you know, and I love that because I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of truth to that, because talent is freely given, but you're making a choice when you work hard, making a choice when you grind and hustle and maybe those are pop culture words that don't fit here perfectly but I mean you can outwork a talented person and be successful, as the talent, the talent didn't show up, sure, and it's.

Willy Bricker: 39:47

It's all about making that choice. Okay, so I am going to be the best that I can. Yes, and like the uh, the whole point of whenever I came into the office, into the managing of the business and then eventually purchased the business with my partner, like now, like I have to show up for the guys. Like I don't have a choice not to like I have to be there. But what makes it fun is I want to be there, Like I love my job, I love doing this.

Willy Bricker: 40:11

Like I want to keep doing it and I say that of course there's being in management and owning a business, there's always going to be the stress level. I mean we're always going to be praying for work for the guys. We're always going to be praying for guys for the work. I mean there. There's always that that side of it managing people, managing customers and taking care of everybody's problems like just solving problems, yeah, but yet at the same time, like that's what I was created for, that's what that's what we were created for is to solve problems, serve people and and I love doing that- you, you talked about the connectivity.

Shed Geek: 40:42

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, I think I have, but like I remember going from lot to lot and I remember one guy telling me one time in Springfield Illinois. I was on a phone call with him and he said well, it's going to get more information. You seem like a guy who's like really big on information and sometimes you feel like alone by yourself and on an island when you're a dealer, because you don't call up these other dealers because I don't know, it's your competition and you know they're not going to take kind of me like coming over and talking to them. And and in some businesses, you know, in some companies they're even encouraged not to right. So you know he's like man. I actually, you know, I just want to learn more without trying to like infiltrate their space or, of course, always want to win. But how can I do it respectfully? And he was like I just really wish people would put more information out there. It's like people and I was like man. That's.

Shed Geek: 41:32

You know, all these things were coming together where you know this podcast was being created. Right, that was the opportunity for it's because I'm listening and I'm like I'm not just talking on a podcast. On a microphone, I'm actually listening and the listening manifest into the opportunity to have the conversation and there's, there's just I mean I'll even mention there's compliments. I've gotten from people that I'm like they don't even know how much it means to me. They were like man you're talking about this is the guy that I met that two years ago or three years ago I had no idea you had that much like either talent inside of you or something.

Shed Geek: 42:05

Wait to come out. It's nice to get the atta boys and the pets on the back. You know, all glory to God, because without God I couldn't stand up and walk out of this room without his permission, right? So you know, it's not me soaking up the glory, but it's like and how cool that, like these people recognize that they're like you know wouldn't even let you in the door two years ago and it and it's so there's like this interpersonal connectivity that you don't know what I mean and it's just amazing and it opens up doors and no man can shut.

Willy Bricker: 42:36

Exactly, I was just like opening up doors, opening up opportunities. Yeah, I'm not a very avid reader, I'm a high school dropout. Never finished high school.

Shed Geek: 42:45

Oh man, I was so close, I don't know how I got through.

Willy Bricker: 42:48

I don't but I can. I could probably count on one hand how many books I've finished since I got out of school, but when your podcast you said leaders or readers, I was like oh man, I stole that too.

Shed Geek: 43:00

Just so you know, I'm not taking credit for any of it. I stole it from one of my favorite podcasts.

Willy Bricker: 43:04

So, and then also I have a friend, our competition. He encouraged me to to recommend a couple of books to me, and so I started.

Shed Geek: 43:12

I think I recommended one to you. Yeah, Just just today.

Willy Bricker: 43:16

So I I got audible and I got a whole library of books now. So I'm not reading them. I'm I'm a terrible reader, I can't. Just the comprehension is not there. But listening is great. So listening to your podcast is a good thing, but the the one book I read was, or listened to, was the Go-Giver and Great Book. It was the first book I actually listened to it and it's like man, that's good. So I ordered the hard copy and read the whole way through the hard copy. So and it's, it's a super simple book but it just it resonated with me. It's like, oh man, I can relate to that. Like it's not a self-help book, it's a story, yeah, and, and there's connectors and there's just people that are out to serve people and it the opportunities that come from that are huge and I've seen that just in in our small little business here way back off the road. But if I'm here serving people, it it comes full circle.

Shed Geek: 44:07

There's a saying that you have to set boundaries because if you're a giver because the takers don't have boundaries and I thought that was really important to go giver First time I actually ever heard of that was Richard Miller. Richard Miller I might have gave me that book, I'm not sure, but I definitely heard him mention it and I ended up buying it and reading it. There's so many good ones. I can show you my audible list right now. I think I've got like eight credits on there and I'm trying to get the right suggestions and I've been mixing it up with like ones about the art of forgiveness or maybe not. It's the art of moving on. It's not necessarily forgiveness based, but it's more like just moving on moving on in business, moving on in life and personal relationships and a lot of these things. One's like a breathing exercise. I know I probably sound like a hippie, but whatever, I don't care. You guys can call me a hippie if you want to.

Shed Geek: 47:26

So, yeah, it's one of those things where I watch documentaries for the educational purpose. I even read a lot of times fiction. I almost can't let my mind relax because I'm kind of looking for the, the education in it, what's to be learned from it. Right, Like, not just to entertain my mind, or like music. I mean, music has a purpose.

Shed Geek: 47:47

You know, music changes like your, your, your mood A lot of times for me to just be able to yeah.

Shed Geek: 47:54

So like all of that, all of that stems from from James one five. You know, let any person who acts, not, who asks for knowledge, let him ask it to be given to him. And I'm paraphrasing him. I'm probably messing that scripture up terribly, but I can remember specifically walking around my living room whenever I was younger and I was like I couldn't seem to succeed in career, couldn't seem to succeed in in certain things of my life, and you know that sent me into a spiral. That that I have kind of talked about some March. We're going into year four. I haven't really discussed it too much on the podcast, but I've kind of talked about it some. Now that I've matured and grow past it and like you know what I mean, like God's really sustained that and and and I remember opening up my Bible. So I remember a pastor whenever I was younger saying if you don't know what to do, you can always just holler Jesus, jesus, jesus, and the devil has to flee. And I was like what does that really work?

Willy Bricker: 48:52

You know what I mean. I was like what Jesus can interpret it, what he knows the heart's better than we do.

Shed Geek: 48:56

Right, I was like what a? What a cool hack for life. You know what I mean to to you know. But if, yeah, if he's looking up on your heart, like he did with David, right, he can, he can see the heart. So, like I remember also a pastor saying open up your Bible and just start reading. It doesn't matter what it is, just start reading it, you know, because there's power in it, so living words, powerful. So I just remember and I opened it up one time and I turned it straight to James one five, and it said that and I was like man, that's my problem.

Shed Geek: 49:20

I'm not smart enough, so I need more knowledge.

Shed Geek: 49:22

Have more knowledge, so this is why I began to try to increase my knowledge but also try to increase the knowledge so like and now I'm in this niche right Of Sheds, so I try to increase knowledge in this area that I'm in because I don't feel like giving someone knowledge is a bad thing in any situation. A more, a more knowledgeable person makes a better decision because they're able to weigh all the facts. So I'm not a big fan of like book burning. I'm not a big fan of like keeping education to a minimum, like I want to tell people and they're like what if that that doesn't benefit you? I'm like it doesn't benefit me. That's where the competitive side of me comes in, to need to do better.

Willy Bricker: 49:58

Instead of just being like I want to stay on this Just like learning how to learn, like that's like, yes, the conversation I have with my nephew. He's 11. He's in the middle of school. He's not a big fan of learning, but I said it's not really what you're learning. That's important. Of course, you probably won't ever use your history or whatever it is in your career when you get older, but you're going to need to learn how to learn. So, if you can learn how to learn your history, learn how to learn your algebra, learn how to learn that then you'll learn how to learn your career when you get older.

Willy Bricker: 50:29

It's all about learning how to learn.

Shed Geek: 50:30

That's a good word. I can talk to you on a three hour podcast. No joke, what are we up to now?

Shed Geek: 50:37

We're. So we started a little early and we had a little cut in there, but we're 47 minutes, wow, and it just it goes so easy and we didn't even get in deep. We didn't even get in deep. We didn't get in deep on sales, we didn't get it on marketing, we didn't get on on any other thing that we kind of discussed before, and maybe that's okay, maybe that's, maybe that's just not the time for it.

Willy Bricker: 50:57

We'll have a part two sometime, right.

Shed Geek: 50:58

Definitely I'll tell you what, like you and other guests that I've had, I always say like I welcome new guests, but I always welcome ode guests back to, because I mean, it's not like a one and done. You can always have a conversation that's beneficial, it's educational and entertaining. Sometimes I've had so many people say, man, I want to come back on because there's so many other things I could have said, or there's areas I've grown since we talked and I'm like man, yeah, let's go, let's do it. Like let's do some zoom calls or something you don't want to need. Like let's.

Shed Geek: 51:28

We're not going to solve the world's problems, but communication is paramount and I think it's very important for guys like yourself who said I don't feel like I'm on an island by myself. I can tune in and listen to problems other people have, or how they overcame them, you know. Or or just learning about shed history in general and how people are connected, not to do damage but because it it helps you to be like oh man, that's the guy I should call, or this is the guy I should ask you. You start to be surprised at, like, how many things people know that could be helpful and that are willing to help. They just don't know you.

Willy Bricker: 52:04

Yeah, and one of the earlier podcasts you did. You did it with Arlen Reel and his partner.

Shed Geek: 52:09

I'm forgetting what his name is Mike Yoder.

Willy Bricker: 52:11

Yes, yes, after I listened that podcast, it was right whenever my partner and I were were thinking about buying this business together and going into partnership and we're wondering how to do all that and I was talking to different people and after that podcast I listened to it again. I think it listened to it a third time and then I called Arlen up and I talked to him about how he laid it all out and like he had a lot of wisdom and insight.

Willy Bricker: 52:32

Absolutely, he didn't say, hey, this is what you should do, it's just, this is what we did and this is what worked. This is what didn't work and it was like invaluable, and you're the connector that connected us.

Shed Geek: 52:41

It was great, great guys, man, and they're doing just wonderful things. They've been on twice, him and Mike. Both are always so well spoken and just just good dudes. Their story was really cool, you know, and their story even kind of reminded me of me and Kyle when Kyle was still on the podcast and like we were sort of having like those friendship, highs and lows and trying, you know in business but then also in personal life, and trying to navigate those and figured out. Those guys were very helpful and that Arlen Arlen said well. Two things I want to point out. One they're doing this really cool thing now I don't know if you've noticed, but they opened up like a storefront where there's not like a shed lot but it's like in a busy storefront, but almost, you know, I don't want to say that they're doing like tough shed, because it's not fair to say that, because I don't think that's their motive, but you know, kind of being able to sell stuff in a traditional store.

Willy Bricker: 53:41

Okay, yeah, I wasn't worried. Yeah Well, I saw it on Facebook.

Shed Geek: 53:44

Okay, sam, and if I'm doing any you know injustice, please go check their page out, because they'll be able to explain what they're doing better than I can explain what they're doing.

Shed Geek: 53:52

Arlen said something really cool last time that didn't make it on the podcast and I'm going to go ahead and say it here because I don't think that there's anything to get me in trouble here. We were kind of talking about, like, their Westwood cabins. We were kind of talking about the process of getting modular and I was like man, what an opportunity out there for somebody to like take on companies who are ready to go modular, who are needing to find out what state certificates they need to get, what the process is going to look like from A to Z. And one of the guys that was there was like man, what a great idea, you're right, we should do that. And Arlen said something that day and he was like well, hold on, we need to ask ourselves is that who we are? Are we educators? And I was like well, it hit me like a flume of smoke right in my face and I was like just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it's good for everybody.

Shed Geek: 54:45

Exactly, it's like a it's like a pastor I used to know. He said you can go broke on good deals just because it's a good deal.

Willy Bricker: 54:50

You can still spend all your money, you know. Yeah, knowing who you are and where you're going is important to know.

Shed Geek: 54:57

He immediately was like well, wait a minute. We need to identify. Is that who we are? Just because it's a good opportunity, why would we go down that road? And I was like I don't like you no more.

Willy Bricker: 55:11

That's one thing where, like for Caleb and I Caleb is my business partner Like for him and I doing it together like it's powerful, like we, we, we balance each other out. So, he's older and I am a little bit more slower to jump into stuff I'm a little bit younger like, hey, let's learn this. I want to learn more about this.

Shed Geek: 55:26

You need that ying and yang almost really yeah, and he's he's added invaluable, just just valuable insight into running the business Well that has become Deanna, and my son, troy, for me, because we, the three of us all conversate and talk and then so many others that we work with Josh, justin, dylan, jeff, nick, nathaniel, that has all kind of become part of the shed geek brand, working in some capacity, completely or marginally, within the shed geek brand. I mean, they're just, they're just really good guys to hang around now and you've got like this whole team, this whole host of you know 10 folks or so that you talk to in different capacities throughout the day, the week, the month, um, on a regular and semi regular basis, and it's just, I don't know kind of like found my team in some ways.

Willy Bricker: 56:19

That's great, yeah, and and you're their leader, leading them to something bigger than themselves.

Shed Geek: 56:24

I would, I would, I would stray far away from calling myself a leader.

Shed Geek: 56:28

Uh, I, I learned so much from those guys that there's so much credit. So, like I'm a good, I don't, I don't. I don't want to make a statement of arrogance here. I'm a good supervisor, but not because I I value the, the power to advise, not because it's a superiority thing. Uh, I've supervised a lot of people that talents go far beyond me. A perfect example might be Dylan uh, never really supervised. Timmy didn't actually work for me, as his brother did, um, but and Nick did uh and Brent did.

Shed Geek: 57:03

Now, I'm going to think about it A lot of people that I work with now have worked, but I, a lot of their talents go far beyond Um, go far beyond what my, my talents are. To me, being a supervisor, my talent was always getting the best out of them. It didn't matter to me that they're. I tell Dylan that all the time I'm like dude, you surprised me, like I never saw you go in as far as you did and I'm just happy to be part of your success and watch it go now and uh, I don't, I don't, I don't need atta boys or accolades or any of that stuff. It's just there's. There's some sense of joy and happiness in knowing that you're a little bit of the part of their process, that a little bit of their success is attached to you always in a small way, you made a difference in someone's life.

Shed Geek: 57:48

That's what leadership probably should be. So maybe maybe I should say leader. But I, just, I, I, I stutter at it because I don't like the idea of the accountability of leadership. I don't want to let anybody down.

Shed Geek: 58:03

I don't want to let anybody down. That's my biggest fear in life is I don't want to let anybody down. So, like I, I we'll move on. Let's get away from that. We beat that horse to death for 54 minutes. Um, I want to ask you a couple of questions. I'll do oh, I don't even know if I should do rapid fire, but I'll just do a couple of questions and then I'm going to do the. Let you turn to my ground and ask some questions. So you have been a big proponent of shed hub. I know that personally, uh, because you signed up and then you also did a testimonial for them. Yep, Um, I don't know if I wrote you the check yet or if I've paid you to say this already or not.

Willy Bricker: 58:42

It should be coming here.

Shed Geek: 58:43

So it's in the mail I haven't got it yet, yeah. What's your true? What's your true experience been with it.

Willy Bricker: 58:49

It's been great. So I reached out. I think whenever you guys first started. I think I was one of the pioneer signupers or whatever it was. But um easy to sign up, super easy to add inventory. You guys have been super helpful. I think I worked with Heather there mostly.

Willy Bricker: 59:05

Um super, super nice, just very knowledgeable. Like super easy to add stuff, um, and it doesn't take long. They just upload the pictures, click on, fill in a few blanks, it's done. Um, and then the the valuable part is it shows up Like your SEO is spot on. So someone's searching sheds near me it's, it's going to be there first page or sheds near any town that we have Like. So we have a couple of dealer lots, and so I signed up our dealer locations under shed hub as well, and then they got their brand builder website. They got their inventory on there. Um, it's just easy, it's all in one place. So our, our dealers don't have internet, so they don't have access to upload their inventory. So I do all that for them, and so that's a huge thing for me If it's easy and quick and I can upload all my dealers inventory myself.

Willy Bricker: 59:55

That's super helpful, Like that's easy. Um, yeah it. It costs money, but it's not an expense, it's a return, Like I just had a customer this morning call me from it. So it's the returns there. People find it and it's just a great way to get out.

Shed Geek: 1:00:12

I find you got to use it. Uh, I think I told you the story. I've had two. I've had two. I've had two customer testimonials. I'll do that always cracked me up. One is the customer calling and said I want to cancel the service, it's not working. And you go look at the account and I don't own a shed hub, just to be clear. I, you know I helped them because they advertise and they're an affiliate partner. So I'm going to do all I can to push people in that direction. I support those who support me. It's easy. Um, they said we weren't seeing anything. And you look at the account and it's like you've not listed one single shed.

Willy Bricker: 1:00:44

Sure You're not going to see any results at all.

Shed Geek: 1:00:49

So like trying to figure out, you know, and then you're like, oh no, that person's going to talk to 10 people and tell them it didn't work and you don't get to go to those 10 people and be like they never listed anything Right.

Shed Geek: 1:00:58

Then we've had just the opposite. I had the went back when we were doing the free account, said somebody call up and say, man, this thing's working. Great, this is phenomenal, it's amazing. I was like, oh great, we need to get you on to a tiered, paid tier and then you'll actually have more like functionality and you can list more shed so it can work better for you. And it's like I don't know, no, no, no, I don't want to pay for anything. I was like wait a minute.

Shed Geek: 1:01:20

Sure, if you called and said it wasn't working and that's why you decided not to move forward, I think I would be like sympathetic to that.

Shed Geek: 1:01:26

But you're saying it's working and you still want to pay. You don't want to pay.

Willy Bricker: 1:01:29

It confuses me, so like the biggest thing was like when it before I signed up. It's like man, we don't even need to sign up, we have all of our inventory on our website.

Shed Geek: 1:01:36

Yeah.

Willy Bricker: 1:01:37

All of our dealers list on our website. We have all the inventory listed there. You can check out e-commerce. It's great, great platform that our marketing guy set up for us. But I'm all about, okay, let's find another way to reach people. Yeah, if this is another way to reach people. Let's do another tool in your toolbox, so that's all it is.

Shed Geek: 1:01:54

Sam Biler always says that another tool in your toolbox to use, use them all. Use whatever works.

Willy Bricker: 1:02:00

That's the key.

Shed Geek: 1:02:02

So love it, love it, love it. Free commercial there for shed hub. Go sign up. They got the first 500 plan $39 a month right now. So, way to go in the ad too.

Shed Geek: 1:02:13

Yeah, they got me there. I caught me off guard, I did. I stepped way out of my comfort zone on that, but I've asked you plenty of questions, turned the mic around and then we can get out of here Any questions that you have for the shed, geek, shed related, personally, podcast, anything that you can think of full transparency and disclosure, any questions you would ask.

Willy Bricker: 1:02:36

First question would be like you're talking to a ton of different people in the industry, from sales to builders, to suppliers, everything. So what's the pulse on the whole industry? Where do you think it's going to go in 2024? And there's a ton of dynamics to play into that. But, in a nutshell, what do you think?

Shed Geek: 1:02:52

In a nutshell, there's a reason we jumped into marketing it's full disclosure, right? So full disclosure is, I think people are struggling to see sales because now we're in the probably heard me say this we're in the old normal and not the new normal, and the old normal was you had to work for sales or you eventually just kind of fell off. Right, it might be a slow death, right, but you know, those who embrace new ideas, whether it be technologies, opportunities, different things, that where people are seeing success, even though it's just say that we don't want to grow to some extent, you have to grow. You at least have to maintain, you have to do what you did before to be successful, unless you've got some very unique business plan that you allows you to slowly get out of this thing. And I think, just embracing the new ideas and technologies anything from configurators to PPC and meta ads and like understanding them or at least working with someone who does, you know, video, video, video video, short form, long forms, like we're trying to.

Shed Geek: 1:04:00

You know, we tried to create a whole marketing suite that can take on a lot and be able to do a lot, have a lot of functionality and then educate people on what that was. So there's a reason I jumped into that. So I think the pulse of it is, you know it's not COVID sales anymore. You got to work for them. So whether that's product knowledge, coaching, all of those things matter, but also kind of understanding how to reach a customer. There's a lot of value into having still a brick and mortar storefront. It's just the understanding how to create your digital storefront. Yeah.

Shed Geek: 1:04:33

You know and like understanding how to do it, what it costs, what you should pledge to it, what you know and who you're going to have do it and should you have people that you trust working with you on it proven results, like. So that's the direction I think it's going and I think that's why people are responding to that so much and I know that sounds like a free commercial for me and maybe it is, but Shameless plug Shameless plug I think that's I do.

Shed Geek: 1:04:57

I think that's where it's going. I think people are going to be like working harder to get in front of those customers, and online is a definitely a good way to do it.

Willy Bricker: 1:05:04

Yeah, for sure. So in all the hats that you wear, the podcaster, the connector, the, the media guy, the marketing, everything, what's what's your favorite part? Oh, podcasting for sure, podcasting.

Shed Geek: 1:05:16

Absolutely Hands down. So, oh no, you got into RTO and I'm like RTO supports my, my addiction, my addiction is the podcast.

Willy Bricker: 1:05:23

Cause I hear a lot of like times, like whenever I have a friend that just loves doing something like, for example, baking cakes. Well, let's, let's make a business baking cakes. Well then, now, all of a sudden, you're running a business and you bake cakes less Like. For me it was the opposite. Like I'm I, building sheds is not my favorite thing to do in the world but being in the office and talking to customers and then running the numbers and running the business. I love that.

Shed Geek: 1:05:45

I love networking. Anybody who's called and talked to me for any point of time on the phone knows that I will talk to you for an hour on the phone even if we're not on this podcast?

Shed Geek: 1:05:53

Yeah, because I enjoy. I don't enjoy talking, I enjoy connectivity, I enjoy, you know, I don't enjoy just hearing myself talk. I want to, I want to hear what the other person's got to say, I want to think about it and mull it over, overthink it for a while right, you know what I mean, and and and come to some conclusions on that. And that's to me, that's creativity. Um, you know, I want to use the creativity, the. The fun thing. Maya Angelou said the good thing about creativity is the more you use of it, the more you have so like to me, the more creative I can be, the better. And like, like people can't like put a limit on that.

Shed Geek: 1:06:26

They can't limit you or you can't limit them. Creativity is like one of the greatest things. In the beginning God created. It's the first thing we know about him. You know, so, like I, I'm just a huge fan of it and I think that conversation brings that out. It might be just one thing you say in this podcast, or it might be one thing someone says in a podcast I listened to, or an audio book or music note or lyric or whatever, but it's the one thing that might allow me to chew it over in my head going down the road on a 500 mile trip for 400 of those miles and like, start exploring all those avenues. And it creates the, this whole dialogue inside of you that just manifest and spews out. When you begin to talk to people that you didn't even know was in there, you're like, wow, this is great, I love talking to him. So the marketing exists for the purpose of funding my, my addiction, which is the podcast communication and networking.

Shed Geek: 1:07:19

You're excellent at it, though, as far as bringing information that's that's relevant and like just relatable to me, like it's, it's sometimes I want to go deeper, but I do fear the repercussions of saying something that would, you know, frustrate a company or several companies or several listeners. But it's not my intent, you know, and I just I got to trust God with that. I just got to give that to him Instead of trying to control it. I just have to give that and say hope that you would do with it what you will, and if at any point I ever become that and I'm not useful to people through the content that we create, then maybe that's my cue, that it's time to shut it down as much as I enjoy it.

Shed Geek: 1:07:59

Maybe that's my time to shut it down. I don't. I'm hoping that's not for at least another five years. That's what we've got planned, so we'll go from there.

Willy Bricker: 1:08:06

Very good Yep.

Shed Geek: 1:08:08

I appreciate your kind words. It means a lot. It really does. All right, I guess we're going to. We're going to get off here then.

Willy Bricker: 1:08:14

Alrighty, appreciate having you on today. Thank you, shannon, it's been great, absolutely.

Shed Geek: 1:08:18

All right.